


Happy Endings

by MsPerception427



Series: True Love and Some Other Stuff [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Another Richie is Trapped in the Deadlights Story, BAMF Eddie Kaspbrak, Deadlights (IT), Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, F/M, Gen, M/M, Protective Eddie Kaspbrak, Protective Stanley Uris, Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris Are Best Friends, Stanley Uris Lives, Stanley Uris is a Good Friend, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:17:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsPerception427/pseuds/MsPerception427
Summary: Richie is trapped in the Deadlights after Eddie threw the monster killer at Pennywise. There's one very obvious solution for this and Stan is 1000% not about to let one of his best friends die because they're all repressed morons.Aka the time where Eddie proved he was a lot braver than he thought and secured his happy ending.





	Happy Endings

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first time writing for IT, but these damn disaster adults grabbed my attention and wouldn't let me focus on any of the stories I was supposed to be writing. I hope you like! Feedback is always appreciated.

Eddie felt his breath catch in his throat as Richie’s impassioned if not completely inappropriate yell ended abruptly. His body was limp and then he was floating, trapped in the deadlights. Eddie wanted to reach for him. Move, say something but he was rooted to the spot once again.  _ You’re braver than you think you are.  _ Bullshit. Eddie Kaspbrak was many things but brave clearly wasn’t one of them. 

“Richie!” Stan’s voice rang through the cavern, terrified and worried and everything at all at once. 

Of course, Stan noticed something wasn’t right with Richie. It was always Stan and Richie. Even twenty-seven years later. Hell, especially twenty-seven years later. Stan seemed oddly obsessed with Richie since they arrived in Derry. The rational part of Eddie’s mind reminded him that he moved from Derry barely a year after they thought they defeated It the first time. Stan and Richie were always close before that. He had no idea what happened to them after he left. But that didn’t help the spark of jealousy that coursed through him when he saw Stan refuse to leave Richie’s side since they were reunited at the Jade Orient. They even collected their tokens together despite Mike and Bill insisting they needed to go it alone. 

It was the first time since they reunited that Richie didn’t seem annoyed by Stan refusing to leave him alone. In fact, he looked almost grateful as they headed to the arcade to collect Richie’s token after pocketing Stan’s shower cap. Eddie saw them when they came back with the literal arcade token in their pocket. Richie looked shaken and Stan wasn’t much better but still in control enough to talk Richie down from leaving. Eddie just wished he knew what caused Richie to react that strongly. He tried to talk to Richie even though he was covered in leper vomit but as usual, Richie shrugged him off telling him to take a shower before retreating into his own room with Stan following behind less than a minute later.

Because the whole trip home was an utter shitshow from start to finish, that’s when Bowers decided to attack. And since twenty-seven years hadn’t changed anything, he was still an utter shitbag and overall terrible, psychotic human being, he went after his favorite target next to Mike: Richie. Thankfully, Stan’s newfound codependency coupled with whatever the hell happened to them in that arcade meant that even Bowers with a knife wasn’t enough to face down two angry 40-year-old men. Derry PD wasn’t the least bit concerned about the dead escaped convict that was tossed out of Richie’s bathroom window with his own knife sticking out of his forehead. So there was something to be said about the way Stan wouldn’t let Richie go so much as two feet away from him without following. 

But that was then and this is now and now despite Stan’s best efforts, he was too far away to help Richie as he floated up further. Eyes alarmingly blank and blood floating from his nose. But Stan was on the ground and he couldn’t do anything but reach for him uselessly. But Eddie… he could. The fence post that Bev handed him earlier burned on his hip. He pulled it free from the belt loop he stuck it in and steeled his nerves.  _ You’re braver than you think you are.  _

“Beep beep, motherfucker!” Eddie yelled before hurtling the post towards the clown that ruined all their lives. Well, all their lives except for Stan, who was the only happily married one of them all. And he would let himself be jealous of Stan later. Right now he was going to be amazed that the fence post struck true. He did it. Pennywise let out a horrifying screech as It reared back. The deadlights stopped and Richie was released. Unfortunately, he was still floating and once the lights were gone, his body was left to slam into the unforgiving ground. Hard. 

“Richie!” Eddie yelled, rushing to his fallen friend’s side. Richie didn’t move. He didn’t so much as twitch. Eddie swallowed down the rapidly growing dread. What if the lights killed him? What if killing It while Richie was trapped ended up killing him too? A thousand what-ifs floated through his mind, only quieting when he found the true cause for Richie’s lack of consciousness. 

He was still stuck in the deadlights. His normally expressive eyes were rolled back in his head and milky white. His nose was still bleeding. Eddie cupped his cheek gently and found his skin was clammy to the touch. Eddie choked on a sob. This wasn’t supposed to happen. 

“Richie, come on wake up! I think I did it. I think I….”

Eddie trailed off as something slammed into him from the side, rolling him and Richie away. He was about to yell at Stan when he saw one of It’s claws strike the ground where they were once lying. 

“Holy shit!” Eddie looked wild-eyed at a heavily breathing Stan. “I didn’t kill It!”

“No, you did not. Also how about we gloat after we make sure the killer space clown is actually dead?!” Stan snapped. “Now help me carry sleeping ugly over here. It’s like the man is literally made of limbs.”

Between them, they were able to maneuver Richie’s lanky body to a small section of the cistern that It couldn’t reach. The others seemed to be keeping the monster occupied so Eddie let himself tumble straight into panic and fear because why the fuck was Richie not waking up?!

“What if I screwed it up? What if he’s stuck like this forever?”

“He won’t be,” Stan said, though he didn’t sound entirely convincing. He looked over his shoulder to make the rest of their friends were safe. Eddie spared a quick glance when he heard Ben yelling something about eggs. That was just as odd as the repeated clown-themed insults being hurled at the creature. 

“Are they actually roasting Pennywise right now?” Eddie asked in a mix of incredulously amused horror. “That had to be Bev’s idea. She’s the only one who's even slightly crazier than Richie.”

“Beverly!” Stan blurted. Eddie turned around to see Stan was staring at Richie, who still hadn’t moved. His excited gaze shifted to Eddie. “Dude, this is just like the last time! Remember? When Bev was caught in the deadlights.”

“Yeah, we pulled her down and then… Ben kissed her. She woke up after Ben kissed her.”

“That’s how we wake Richie up!” Stan grinned. “You gotta kiss Richie!”

“Me?!” Eddie yelled shrilly. “How does… what? Why? Why does it need to be me?!”

“Pretty sure it only worked because Ben has been in love with Bev since they met. True love and all that fairytale shit. So just kiss this asshole so we can go watch our friends bully a space clown to death. It sounds kind of stupid but I have to admit it might be entertaining as fuck.”

Eddie blinked. “Again, why does it have to be me? You kiss him!”

Stan rolled his eyes and leaned down to do just that. He pressed his lips against Richie’s for a moment and pulled away with the same exasperated look on his face. Eddie looked down to see that Richie hadn’t moved. His eyes were still rolled up and blood was trickling from his ears. He was getting worse. 

“I love Rich, but I’m not in love with him. Not like you were.” He paused. “Not like you are.”

“Stan, I’m married.”

“You’re in denial. You both are. You always have been,” Stan countered. “Are you really willing to let Richie die just to keep pretending? Because that’s what will happen if we don’t pull him out of the deadlights. Richie will die.” Eddie swallowed. Stan’s face softened. “I just got you all back, Ed. I can’t lose any of you. I can’t lose him. And I know you can’t lose him either.”

Eddie nodded, placing a hand on Stan’s shoulder. As much as he wanted to, Eddie really couldn’t argue with that. As much as he feared his feelings for Richie, he knew they were real. They were there. He spent almost twenty-five years without Richie. There was no way he was going to let him go. Eddie was not about to lose him to fear. He squeezed Stan’s shoulder lightly before maneuvering so that he was leaned over Richie. 

_ This better work. I... love him. I think I always have. _ He brushed his lips against Richie’s, savoring the light touch for just a moment.  _ Always will. Come back to me. Come back to us. _

It wasn’t much of a kiss. Just his lips shaking against Richie’s cold, unresponsive lips. It certainly wasn’t what he imagined their first kiss would be. And it also wasn’t fucking working. It was like he was kissing a corpse. Eddie jerked away with a choked cry. 

“It’s not working. Maybe we should get one of…” he was cut off as Richie suddenly gasped, lurching upright. It was only because Eddie knew the taller man so well that he saw it coming. He moved to Stan’s side even as the other man tilted Richie away from them both just in time for him to lose the little bit of food he had managed to choke down in the past two days. He continued retching until he was only spitting up bile. Finally, he stopped vomiting, body hunched over and back facing them. 

“Rich?” Stan’s voice was soft and apparently exactly what Richie needed. He turned away from the mess next to him to face them. His glasses, cracked as they were, still magnified the brown orbs staring at him and Stan as if they were something amazing. 

“I saw.. I saw it…” Richie mumbled. His hands were trembling as one reached for Stan’s wrist and the other brushed against Eddie’s stomach. “But you’re… you’re here… I saw it. I saw you.”

“Guys, we gotta go!” Mike yelled from outside their cavern hiding spot. “This place is going to collapse. We gotta run.”

“Is R-Richie okay?!” Bill asked, face appearing at the face of the cavern. 

“Yeah, he’s,” Eddie looked first to Richie who was still mumbling under his breath trembling violently and then to Stan who was watching their friend with a devastated but understanding expression. His hand covering the one Richie left on his wrist. “We might need some help getting him out of here.”

“On it,” Ben replied, sliding down to meet them even as the cave around them started to shake. Ben kneeled in front of Richie with Bev by his side. Ever the softie, Ben smiled gently at Richie. “Hey, Rich. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to get the hell out of here. How about you?”

“I saw… in the lights… I saw….”

“I know, honey,” Bev crooned. She kissed his forehead lightly. “I know. It’s going to be okay. We changed it. We killed that fucking clown. None of it is going to happen now.”

“Yeah, they totally bullied him to death,” Stan chimed in. “We missed quite the show.”

“Sounds like,” Richie mumbled, sounding like himself for the first time since he woke up. But Eddie could still see him shaking. “Alright, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” 

“Seven in, seven out,” Ben said, cheerfully from where he was mostly supporting Richie. Eddie frowned when Richie turned that haunted look his and Stan’s way once again before forcing himself to smile. 

“Yeah, seven in, seven out. We did it.”

* * *

Eddie knew he was staring and it was weird. But he was finally starting to understand why Stan refused to let Richie go these last few days. He almost lost him. He almost… and he never told him. Richie almost died down in that sewer and Eddie never told him how much he cared. The kiss worked. It brought Richie back to life. He wanted to be surprised they were like soulmates or whatever but he wasn’t. He knew it all along. Well, he knew it until an evil killer space clown forced them all to forget each for almost thirty years. But it all came rushing back to him at the restaurant. 

“You okay?” Stan asked as he waded through the shallow water to join Eddie at his spot on the shore. 

Mike, Ben, and Bill were splashing around, clearly still riding the adrenaline high of killing It. Bev and Richie were sitting together in the middle of the quarry on a group of rocks, talking quietly with their heads bowed. Eddie didn’t know what they were talking about but the trembling limbs that had been plaguing Richie have lessened. So whatever they were talking about was clearly helping. Still, Eddie wished it could be him by Richie’s side. But only Bev knows how the deadlights affected a person. 

“Yeah, I’m okay. You?”

“I feel… free,” Stan smiled softly. “Like this huge burden is gone. And everything feels right again. Because everything that was missing is back too.”

Eddie nodded because he knew that feeling well. Ever since he was sixteen, he felt like something in his life was missing. He never worried why he couldn’t remember his childhood or where he grew up. In retrospect, it felt weird never knowing where he came from or what his childhood was like. But it never bothered him as much as this irksome feeling that something was gone. He knew that some part of him was missing and he wanted it back. It made him stronger. Without it, he was weak and easily manipulated. But now he had it back. Had them back. His best friends, his Losers…. His Richie.

“I know that I’ve been… weird since we got back together. You know with the whole me following Richie everywhere thing,” Stan continued, dragging Eddie out of his thoughts. Eddie smiled at his friend, gently nudging him with his shoulder. 

“No, I get it. Trust me, I get it,” Eddie assured him. “I can’t stop staring at him. He… could’ve died. And I was so hung up on being scared that I was going to let him.” 

“You wouldn’t have let him die,” Stan replied, sounding so sure. “You always pull through when it comes to your friends.”

“Except for when I let my mother take me out of Derry. Take me away from all of you,” Eddie shook his head. He should’ve fought her then. She only moved because she knew she was losing control of him. She thought if she took away from what remained of the Losers then he would be under her control again. She wasn’t wrong. 

“When you left, when we were sixteen… it wasn’t a good time for him,” Stan whispered, looking down at the water. “It was so soon after Ben left and didn’t write. And we knew. We knew that we would lose you too. Just like we lost Bill and Bev before. But Richie wouldn’t let go. He held onto the hope. He thought that whatever you two had would override it all. That you would remember us.”

Eddie closed just eyes. He felt irrationally guilty. He knew he didn’t choose to forget Richie or the other Losers but dammit he should’ve remembered. He can’t imagine how he could ever forget Richie. Damn clown ruining everything. He just wished he was able to throw his own insults in there at the end. That clown ruined their lives for so long. 

“After you left, he got quiet. He was here but everything that made him Richie was wherever you were. Then the day after graduation, he just… left. He didn’t say goodbye to me or Mike. He just left. He knew that if he left he would forget and I think he chose to forget. He wanted to disappear. And he did.” 

“Oh, Richie,” Eddie murmured looking at the comedian who was still talking with Bev and now Ben. The architect was sitting between the pair with an arm slung around them both. 

“I almost didn’t make it back, Ed,” Stan continued, voice soft. “When Mike called, I knew I couldn’t do it. I was so scared. I thought my only option was to take myself off the board.” Eddie turned to him, suddenly remembering the way Richie traced a very specific pattern on Stan’s wrists. The way Bev seemed surprised to see Stan arrive at dinner that night. 

Stan was far from a coward but that summer changed him. They all saw it. It’s not surprising that the idea of returning home to face the thing that nearly killed them as children would to terrify him. Would force him to think that he had no choice. Eddie swallowed the lump rising in his throat and picked up Stan’s hand that was resting between them. 

“Why did you change your mind?” Eddie asked hoarsely, voice cracking in ways he hadn’t heard since puberty. “Not that I’m mad you did or anything.” 

Stan laughed softly and jutted with his chin in Richie’s direction. “The same asshole who’s been dragging me into shit since we were four. I was sitting in my bathtub… well, I was there. I remembered the pact but then I remembered Richie. And I knew that if he was still out there. If he was still alive, he would come back. And I needed to know. Then when I saw him, I was terrified that It was going to take him away from me. So I’ve been… yeah.” 

“It’s okay,” Eddie said again. “I think at first I was jealous… because I’ve always been jealous. I have to work so hard to get his attention. Like sure he loved to talk about fucking my mom and tease me. But he wouldn’t talk to me about anything real. I saw the bruises, Stan. I knew he was hungry and alone but he never came to me. But... he only came to you when he had a real problem.” 

Stan laughed, shaking his head. “Ed, you still don’t get it, do you? I was here after you left and I wasn’t enough to keep him from disappearing. You moved and his world ended. Everything Richie does and thinks will always be about you. It’s been that way since we were kids.”

And deep down, he did know that. He knew that what Stan and Richie had was special but they were more like brothers than anything else. Stan’s parents were the discipline and nurturing that Richie needed in the face of his own neglectful parents. Their bond while special was not the same as what he had with Eddie. 

“How long have you known?”

“Well I guessed it when we were like eleven but I knew for sure the summer with It. He came to me one day hysterical after Bowers chased him out of the arcade with the usual homophobic psycho bullshit. He was freaked out. And he told me everything.”

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Eddie asked, voice soft. “He… I….”

“You know why, Ed,” Stan answered, kicking his foot idly in the water. “Because for all that he’s loud and brash, Richie is scared. He’s so scared he would rather hide everything about himself than to try and be happy. You were always the brave one for him. You make him brave.”

Eddie sucked in a breath. Before returning to Derry, those words would not have made any kind of sense. Him? Brave? But that’s exactly what he was. He kicked a clown in the face when they were barely thirteen. He stood up to the biggest bully of them all, his mother. He was brave. He let his mother and Myra convince him otherwise but two days back with the Losers and he knew. 

“I know the number for a really good divorce lawyer in New York if you’re interested,” Stan said, once again getting his attention. Eddie arched an eyebrow. Stan rolled his eyes. Richie was right. One day they were going to get stuck like that. “Ed, I love your neurotic ass but even you wouldn’t pack that heavy for a few days. I know you left your wife.” 

“I… yeah, I guess I did. I haven’t really thought about it. But I did.” He ran a hand over his face. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” 

“Well, pretty sure you have your run of where to go. Bev and Ben will be together wherever they end up and neither of them would turn you away. Mike is going to travel but I don’t think he would mind the company. Bill will be back in LA. I’m in Atlanta and you’re free to come with me for as long as you want because I know my wife will love you. But let’s be honest here, we both know you’re going to LA and it ain’t for Bill.”

Eddie snickered, which turned into a genuine laugh as the man himself floated past them with a curious look on his face. Before Bill could even ask what they were talking about, Mike was jumping on him and knocking him under the water. Round whatever of their splash fight started up, gaining the attention of Bev and Ben. 

Stan sighed softly beside Eddie. “Everyone is coupling up and it’s super gross. Damn, I really miss my wife right now. I should really call her.” 

“Wait… Mike and Bill?” Eddie asked, eyes watching the four friends with new understanding dawning on him. “Huh, I did not see that coming.”

“Totally called it,” Stan murmured before jutting forward with his chin again. “Talk to him.”

Richie was sitting alone on his rock, clearly still deep in thought. He was rubbing his glasses on the bottom of his shirt like he was trying to get something off. Eddie started to say something more to Stan but found that the man was already throwing himself into the impromptu game of chicken the others were playing. 

With a soft sigh, Eddie made his way over to Richie, ignoring the flailing limbs and splashing of his totally adult and mature friends that were currently trying to drown one another. It was like nothing had changed with them. They were still as close and just as interconnected.  _ Well, some things changed _ , Eddie thought as Ben pulled Bev in for a sweet kiss and Mike and Bill hovered just a little too close to one another. Eddie smiled.  _ Time for my happy ending. _

“Hey, Rich,” he called out, trying not to startle Richie who still seemed to be miles away. If the taller man was anything like this after he moved away, Eddie could see where Stan’s concerns came from. 

Despite his best efforts, Richie still startled dropping his glasses in the process. Thankfully, Eddie was close by. He picked them up before they could drift away with the current. He carefully dried them off on the driest piece of his shirt he could find before placing them gently on Richie’s face. Brown eyes tracked every move he made but he remained dreadfully silent. Eddie hovered in the water between Richie’s legs. 

“You gotta be more careful there, Trashmouth. We all know you’re legally blind without those,” he joked lightly. Richie mustered a wan smile. Without thinking, Eddie cupped his jaw, thumbs brushing against Richie’s cheeks. A light flush colored the skin underneath his fingers. “What’s going on in that trash brain of yours?”

“Trashmouth, trash brain,” Richie murmured, clearly trying for light teasing but just coming across as tired. Eddie continued to skim across Richie’s cheekbones. “Starting to think you might believe I’m literal trash, Spaghetti.”

“Never,” Eddie replied, firmly. “You’re definitely not trash. Not to any of us but especially not to me. Never to me.”

Richie exhaled slowly. One hand rising to cover Eddie’s. “Eds, what’s happening? What is this?” Richie asked, his voice impossibly soft and worried. 

Eddie smiled. “This is me being brave,” he answered. “I don’t know if you heard but I kind of married my mom.” Richie snorted. His eyes softened. “But I also left her. As soon as I heard Mike’s voice I knew it was wrong. I knew I had to go because someone better was out there for me waiting. I just had to get to him. And I found him when he hit a gong in a Chinese restaurant like a child.”

“For the record, it was Ben's idea,” Richie blatantly lied, before biting his lip. “Are you sure about all this, Ed? I know Stan probably told you because he’s a nosey little busy body asshole but… I just… I don’t want you to do this and realize you made a mistake.”

“My mistake was not staying with you when we were sixteen,” Eddie countered. “My mistake was not being the brave one twenty seven years ago and telling you that I love you. I always have and I know now that I always will. The only mistake would be letting you go again. And I’m not planning on doing that anytime soon. Loving you is not a mistake. It’s the best damn thing I’ve done with my life so far.”

“Oh,” Richie breathed, eyes wide behind his cracked glasses. Eddie rolled his eyes in response but couldn’t keep the fondness from his smile. 

“Yeah, oh,” he whispered before finally connecting their lips.

This kiss was only slightly better than their first in that Richie was at least warm and not bleeding everywhere. He still wasn’t responding but that was probably due to the shock. 

Eddie started to pull away when Richie whimpered, fist rising to close around the front of Eddie’s shirt, dragging him even closer and finally getting with the program. Eddie couldn’t help the moan that escaped as Richie’s tongue darted out to lick against the seam of his mouth. He opened in response… and yes. This was what he always imagined when he thought of this moment. Flesh and heat and…. 

“It’s about damn time!”

…their idiot friends. 

The pair didn’t have a chance to register Stan’s words before the man was pouncing on them knocking Richie off the rock. After that, it was a free for all as the rest of the Losers took this as open season on the new couple. They splashed, they fought but most importantly they laughed. 

For the first time since they faced Pennywise as children, they were finally free of the burden. When they left Derry this time, they knew they would never return. They wouldn’t have to. Everything precious about this town would be with them when they left. They somehow knew they would be able to keep each other this time. 

“Hey, Eds?” Richie asked, pulling him close. Eddie grinned up at him. 

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t get to say it earlier but… I love you too. I have since we were thirteen and all that stuff.” 

“Well, that’s good because otherwise, it would’ve been really fucking awkward when I moved in with you.”

Richie snorted before giving in to a full-body laugh. Eddie could feel it from where his arms were looped around the taller man’s neck. For all that he made jokes, it wasn’t often that Richie was laughing. He liked it when Richie laughed. Eddie pressed up to kiss that smile and felt it grow even as Richie’s arms wrapped tighter around him. 

The idea of moving across the country to live with and start a new relationship with his very male best friend while also divorcing his wife should’ve terrified him. But as he floated in the loving embrace of said male best friend listening to him and Stan come up with increasingly more hysterical names for their future children and/or pets, Eddie couldn’t find it in him to be scared. This was the future they deserved. 

“Dude, I swear if you name your dog Penny, I’m gonna toss it into the sun!”

“Eduardo, take note. Staniel is not allowed near our future daughter unsupervised.”

Stan rolled his eyes, looking so much like Eddie remembered. Richie’s teasing laugh in response. Twenty-seven years passed and yet it was like no time at all had gone by. They were still the same losers he knew and loved. That’s why there was only one response Eddie could give in this situation. 

“Duly noted. Stanley, do not talk to me, my boyfriend or our beautiful Pomeranian daughter, Penny, ever again.” 

“You’ve been together for ten minutes and you already broke Eddie!” Stan sputtered. 

“Eddie has always been at least slightly broken,” Mike chimed in. “It’s why they work.”

“Exactly!” Richie yelled, pointing at Mike. “Mikey knows what’s up!”

“Fine! I won’t kick your horribly named dog-child into the sun,” Stan retorted. “But you have to promise our next meetup is at Disney.”

“Wait, was that not the plan all along?” Bev murmured, wrinkling her nose. “Why am I agreeing to meet up with any of you if Disney is not involved?” 

“We all said that would be our first trip outside Derry,” Ben answered, a soft smile on his face. “Plus, Mike finally gets to see Florida.” 

“Can we go tomorrow?” Mike asked and they all knew he was only half-joking. 

“Why the hell not?” Eddie shrugged. “We killed a homophobic child-murdering space clown. The least we deserve is a trip to Disney.” 

“I think you might be right for the first time, Stanny. I really did break Eddie.” 

Eddie huffed, turning in the circle of Richie’s arms to look the taller man in the eye. “Think about it. I say we all deserve a break after everything we just went through. You already missed your tour dates. Bill, your endings sucked and likely anything you were going to write for that movie was going to suck. Hopefully, someone already wrote a better one. Try again later.” Bill could only shrug. “Stan, call Patty and have her join us. Bev, Ben, you guys got anywhere better to be?” 

“Nope,” Bev answered, looking up at Ben like he hung the moon. It was so sweet, it was actually a little gross. 

“Well, then it’s settled. Mike waited for us for twenty-seven years. We can hold the real world off for a week or so for him.” 

“Eddie… I… thanks,” Mike murmured quietly. Bill looped an arm around his shoulders and the rest of the Losers fell into place, hugging their friend in gratitude. Richie and Stan holding him the tightest, each murmuring apologies for leaving him behind. Apologies Mike didn’t want and would likely never accept. 

Eddie meant it from the bottom of his heart. He didn’t know what he was missing until he saw Richie again. He just knew a piece of his heart was missing. He couldn’t imagine the pain that Mike must’ve endured knowing exactly what was missing. He stuck around in their godforsaken hometown waiting to gather them back again. If going to Disney World with his friends would make him happy, then Eddie would be damned if Mike didn’t get the best trip to Disney World he could ever imagine. 

The Losers were back together again. And nothing was going to tear them apart. Not even Eddie and Richie’s poorly named dog. Eddie made a mental note to look into Pomeranian adoptions in LA. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it right. They were all going to get their happy endings at last. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
